Date: June 1, 2019
Author(s): Malia Schilling
Abstract
For most of the past century, the goal of street design in the United States was to move vehicular traffic as quickly as possible. However, as the multitude of negative externalities that stem from car-centric culture became obvious, street design shifted toward a new norm: providing safe, efficient access to every user. Recent street design documents for the City of Los Angeles, like the “Complete Streets Design Guide,” advocate for safer, multimodal streets. However, these recommendations are misaligned with many existing car-oriented regulations, and they are not consistently applied. Today, the Los Angeles has begun reviewing and refreshing its currently mismatched street design guidance.This report analyzes 10 peer cities with the goal of providing best practices and lessons learned for Los Angeles’ update of its street design guidance. Specifically, the report examines each city’s development and implementation of its street design guideline reviews through semi-structured interviews and review of six priority complete streets design treatments. This research provides insights on how peer cities attempted to address misaligned policy, prioritized complete streets goals, and created guides specific enough for today’s use and flexible enough to address changing transportation and mobility needs of their populations.
About the Project
This report analyzes ten peer cities across the state, country and globe with the goal of providing best practices and lessons learned for Los Angeles’ update of its street design guidance: Atlanta, Dallas, London, Mumbai, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Toronto, and Washington DC. Specifically, the report examines each city’s development and implementation of its street design guidelines through semi-structured interviews and an analysis of six priority complete streets design treatments. Treatments analyzed include corner radii, curb extensions, pedestrian refuge islands, raised crosswalks, roundabouts, and transit platforms. Based on my analysis, I recommend three policy guidelines for the City of Los Angeles: 1) prioritize street design regulations over recommendations, 2) choose flexibility over specificity, and 3) create unified documentation.